had fallen into the habit of going to bed at nine o’clock, for they found cribbage night after night, from five o’clock till ten, rather too much of a good thing.  To tell the truth, that winter, if peaceful, was monotonous in Hollingford; and the whole circle of gentility there was delighted to be stirred up in March by the intelligence that Mr. Kirkpatrick, the newly-made Q.C., was coming on a visit of a couple of days to his sister-in-law Mrs Gibson.  Mrs. Goodenough’s room was the very centre of gossip; gossip had been her daily bread through her life, gossip was meat and wine to her now.

‘Dear-ah-me!’ said the old lady, rousing herself so as to sit upright in her easy chair, and propping herself with her hands on the arms; ‘who would ha’ thought she’d such grand relations!  Why, Mr Ashton told me once that a Queen’s counsel was as like to be a judge as a kitten is like to be a cat.  And to think of her being as good as a sister to a judge!  I saw one oncst; and I know I thought as I should not wish for a better winter-cloak than his old robes would make me, if I could only find out where I could get them second-hand.  And I know she’d her silk gowns turned and dyed and cleaned, and, for aught I know, turned again, while she lived at Ashcombe.  Keeping a school, too, and so near akin to this Queen’s counsel all the time!  Well, to be sure, it was not much of a school—­only ten young ladies at the best o’ times; so perhaps he never heard of it.’

‘I’ve been wondering what they’ll give him to dinner,’ said Miss Browning.  ’It is an unlucky time for visitors; no game to be had, and lamb so late this year, and chicken hardly to be had for love or money.’

‘He’ll have to put up with calves-head, that he will,’ said Mrs Goodenough, solemnly.  ‘If I’d ha’ got my usual health I’d copy out a receipt of my grandmother’s for a rolled calves-head,’ and send it to Mrs. Gibson,—­the doctor has been very kind to me all through this illness,—­I wish my daughter in Combermere would send me some autumn chickens—­I’d pass ’em on to the doctor, that I would; but she’s been a-killing of ’em all, and a-sending of them to me, and the last she sent she wrote me word was the last.’

‘I wonder if they’ll give a party for him!’ suggested Miss Phoebe.  ’I should like to see a Queen’s counsel for once in my life.  I have seen javelin-men, but that’s the greatest thing in the legal line I ever came across.’

‘They’ll ask Mr. Ashton, of course,’ said Miss Browning.  ’The three black graces, Law, Physic, and Divinity, as the song calls them.’  Whenever there’s a second course, there’s always the clergyman of the parish invited in any family of gentility.’

‘I wonder if he’s married!’ said Mrs. Goodenough.  Miss Phoebe had been feeling the same wonder, but had not thought it maidenly to express it, even to her sister, who was the source of knowledge, having met Mrs. Gibson in the street on her way to Mrs. Goodenough’s.